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pond where the bones had been found. This in length. Its curving tusks reached out 11 feet.
was powered by farmboys and spectators
The great American incognitum was the
tramping along inside a huge treadmill. On first mastodon skeleton anyone had ever dug
several occasions, heavy rain nearly caused up and put together. Peale did not know that;
the structure to collapse, but Peale labored on. he thought his discovery was akin to the mam
After more than a month's work he sailed back moth bones that had been found in Siberia, so
to Philadelphia with his crates of treasure. It he and all Philadelphia called it a mammoth.
would take him and Rembrandt three more It was left to Baron Georges Cuvier, the
months to fit the bones together. All told, he founder of modern paleontology, to describe
would spend $2,000, some of it borrowed, to and name the mastodon.
complete the project. When they were fin-
Peale advertised his "mammoth" as "the
ished, however, they had a marvel. It stood 11 Largest of Terrestrial Beings!" People flocked
feet high at the shoulder and 17 feet 6 inches to see it, paying a stiff 50-cent admission. It
The Peales:America's FirstFamily of Art
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